Reminds me a lot of Marcus Smart actually. Good comp.
*** Official #1 Baylor vs #8 IOWA STATE Game(Day) Thread ***
- Thread starter CycloneRulzzz
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Reminds me a lot of Marcus Smart actually. Good comp.
I thought Baylor did a good job of taking Jazz and Gabe out of their games. Some nights are like that. We needed to do more to counter that by hindering Baylor on the defensive end. They have an amazing team so it is not easy to do. Thought Caleb was Brock Purdy tonight. Really pressing on his shot and not letting the game come to him, trying to do too much, to hopefully force the issue. You can tell the kid plays with a passion in the tradition of all true Iowa Staters. He reminds me of Matt Thomas in his early years. I think he will get there just going to be a journey.
This team is so resilient mentally. They play with such resolve. I feel they win by breaking the will of opposing teams. I wondered how they would fair against teams that can match their mental resolve and I was not disheartened.
I have pause on how much they'll really be able to win though with being so limited on offense.
This 'ISU showed they belong' stuff might be overshooting a bit. Playing tough vs. a really good team is great but let's see what the mood is here if the result is similar Wednesday.
Pretty much my normal stat line for Saturday morning pickup.
I am not a huge GK fan however I agree with this...and that last (Ithink it was his last) foul on him was not a block but should have been a charge/push off on Akinjo. That was huge as it probably is a 4 point swing near the end of the game.
This...the court is exactly the same length it has always been, yet Gabe, a senior with a ton of minutes at the P5 level, repeatedly steps out of bounds when driving on the baseline...maddening!
We play ugly but it's with purpose. It's not about if we can hit X number of shots it's about what the other team has to do to win. From what I've seen so far the other team needs to play good defense and hit tough shot after tough shot for 40 mins. If they can do that then hats off to them. If not then the likely out come is we win.
Yeah I know they play ugly and it's going to be a grind. I'd expect ISU to be within arm's reach for most games.
It's going to come down to who ISU can really go to just to get a bucket and/or how they can set up high percentage shots in tight moments. It's also going to come down to valuing possessions which ISU has not been great with recently.
Can ISU do that to get 8-9 more wins?
Guys hung in there and competed. Really just came down to who hit shots. ISU couldn’t buy a three and Baylor hit some tough shots all night. feel pretty good about conference play after this game. Also thought there way too may sloppy turnovers in the first half.
Enaruna continues to emerge.
Enaruna continues to emerge.
What are those adjustments? A knock down shooter isn't walking through that door. Hunter is brilliant, but he's a freshman and has not learned yo take care of the rock to the level we need.
Not sure what we hope to see adjusted. Bringing Gabe off the bench? To me that's mainly optics. And IMO, similar to uptick from Enaruna to reach max potential will need Gabe contributing closer to his ceiling more consistently.
Finding ways to get him to the lane/line would be ideal. If we can get 4-6 pts every first half from him and GC think that bodes well for us.
If Enaruna can continue to establish himself as a two #2 option, that rounds out the offensive identity of this team.
IZB TE
Jaz involvement is key as well. Love Caleb, but feel like anything we get from him is gravy.
baylor plays about as physical as you get but we did go to the charity stripe twice as many times as they did in the game.
Baylor to date avg, score 83.3 today 77 opponents avg score 55.3 we scored 72 not one for moral victories but very excited about what we did against the #1 team right now.
Part of that is what we were doing on offense vs. them though. We weren't hitting anything outside so we needed to get into the lane, which will generate more fouls. They could actually hit 3's so they didn't need to get physical on offense as much.
To boot also love that TJ is frustrated, stubbornly not satisfied. That continues to give me hope to the long term trajectory of this program.
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And IMO should have been there more...I don't think we had a single and 1, where there were a handful that would routinely be called. I am not complaining about the refs as they called enough to keep it orderly but ignored enough not to affect the flow of the game.
Is that a word? If so I'm stealing it. I love it.
TJ is intense. One poster in some game thread said "their coach is intense. He probably combs his hair in the morning with a basketball shoe". Made me chuckle. Kinda looks like he does....
